U.S., allies strike ISIS targets in Syria

Assault a major turning point in war on militants

New York Times

Published 11:38 pm, Monday, September 22, 2014

Photo: BULENT KILIC

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TOPSHOTS Syrian Kurds try to grab water thrown from Turkey near the border with Syria as they wait to take care of their animals at the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, on September 21, 2014. Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds flooded into Turkey on September 20, fleeing an onslaught by the jihadist Islamic State group that prompted an appeal for international intervention. AFP PHOTO/BULENT KILICBULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images less

TOPSHOTS Syrian Kurds try to grab water thrown from Turkey near the border with Syria as they wait to take care of their animals at the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, on September 21, 2014. ... more

Photo: BULENT KILIC

U.S., allies strike ISIS targets in Syria

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Washington

The United States and allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants' de facto capital of Raqqa and along the porous Iraq border.

U.S. fighter jets and armed Predator and Reaper drones, flying alongside warplanes from several Arab allies, struck a broad array of targets in territory controlled by the militants, known as the Islamic State. U.S. defense officials said the targets included weapons supplies, depots, barracks and buildings the militants use for command and control. Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from U.S. Navy ships in the region.

"I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, using an alternate name for the Islamic State.

"Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time," Kirby said in a statement Monday night in Washington. "The decision to conduct these strikes was made earlier today by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief. We will provide more details later as operationally appropriate."

The strikes are a major turning point in President Barack Obama's war against the Islamic State and open up a risky new stage of the U.S. military campaign. Until now, the administration had bombed Islamic State targets only in Iraq, and had suggested it would be weeks if not months before the start of a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets in Syria.

The strikes came less than two weeks after Obama announced in an address to the nation that he was authorizing an expansion of the military campaign against the Islamic State.

Unlike U.S. strikes in Iraq over the past month, which have been small-bore bombings of mostly individual Islamic State targets — patrol boats and trucks — the salvo on Tuesday in Syria was the beginning of what was expected to be a sustained, hours-long bombardment at targets in the militant headquarters in Raqqa and on the border.

The strikes began after years of debate within the Obama administration about whether the United States should intervene militarily or should avoid another entanglement in a complex war in the Middle East. But the Islamic State controls a broad swath of land across both Iraq and Syria.

Defense officials said the goal of the air campaign was to deprive the Islamic State of the safe havens it enjoys in Syria. The administration's ultimate goal, as set forth in the address Obama delivered on Sept. 10, is to recruit a global coalition to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the militants, even as Obama warned that "eradicating a cancer" like the Islamic State was a long-term challenge that would put some U.S. troops at risk.

U.S. warplanes had been conducting aerial surveillance flights in Syria for more than a month in anticipation of airstrikes, but it had been unclear just how much intelligence the Pentagon had managed to gather about the movements of the Sunni militant group in Syria. Unlike Iraq, whose airspace is controlled by the United States, Syria has its own aerial defense system, so U.S. planes have had to rely on sometimes jamming the country's defenses when crossing into Syria.

The strikes in Syria occurred without the approval of President Bashar Assad of Syria, whose government, unlike Iraq, did not ask the U.S. for help against the Sunni militant group. Obama has repeatedly called on Assad to step down because of chemical weapons attacks and violence against his own people, and defense officials said Assad had not been told in advance of the strikes.

But administration officials acknowledge that U.S. efforts to roll back the Sunni militant group in Syria cannot help but aid Assad, whose government is also a target of the Islamic State.

The administration did not announce the allies that participated in the strikes, saying they would leave it up to the nations' leaders to announce their own military action.